I always use these and they're great. They move the water well and you never have to worry about them leaking or overflowing like an external or hang on. I have 2 in a large planted and dirted tank and hardly ever have to clean them. Haven't needed to clean mine for 4 months now and still strong flows. Healthy happy and long lived fish too...

I do like the Sicce Shark 800 magnetic design and configuration ease

I don't mind them as a temporary polishing filter, but definitely not a preferred main filter. Looking forward to the fishroom tour!!!😊

Great series of videos, as usual. Appreciate what you do. Happy New Year!!!🎉

I use a Sicce Shark Pro 900 in my 40 breeder and Pro 700 in my 20 long, and they've been pretty solid for me. My Aquaclear HOB's would consistently leak/drip from water touching the lid, water sneaking through the gap in lid/body, and I was tired of cleaning up the mess (this happened no matter how many times I adjusted/tweaked). Didn't like the cleanup/leaking of the standard external canister filters either so....these fit the bill. :-)

Love them! Maybe not as a main filter but as a secondary for water flow and extra filtering they are great. The Fluval U Series.

I remember these from the 1990s and early 2000s. I deduced that they were crappy back then. Thank you for reminding me. Love your channel and your reviews. Thank you sir.

You crack me up. Thanks for the entertaining look at filters that suck.

I’ve learned through out the years that it all depends on your situation. I have tanks with 700 gallons per hour flowing through the filter. I have tanks with no filters at all. Very situational imo.

I'm liking your style, your critiquing is fun!

The major positive of these filters is noise. They are virtually silent, which is great for an office tank or in a living room beaide the couch. I used them exclusively for 2 years before switching to canister filters. It was great to have beautiful tanks with no sound of bubbles or running/falling water. Other than that totally agree with you

I use the 5-10 gallon hang in thank filter. I take the media out and use them really only to break surface tension in my tanks. Up to 75 gallon. I use plants for filtration.

Hi Bentley, you hit the nail right on the head with your points. These are the primary reasons why I am not a fan. To me, internal filters would be good for water polishing. Happy New Year, and I hope to see more of your videos next year.🎉

@Bentley Pascoe I'm running the Marineland Magnum primarily as a polisher (5 years) in the 120 Discus it also improves the flow in the tank. It even handled all the filtration for about a week when the impeller shaft in the Ehiem canister decided to break. Since this tank is built into a wall there's no room to add anything external to the tank. I'm also using a Sicce Shark Pro 500 on a 20L quarantine tank. Both filters do the job they're supposed to do, they do it quietly & are easy to maintain.

The best internal filter ever had. Excellent flow and keeps my 55 gallon crystal clear I have The Fluval U 4.

Oh noes! Not my beloved internal filters! I have a Sicce, Whisper, a nano one that I can't remember the brand name of and Nat Geo one I got on clearance several years ago at Petsmart. With my Sicce and Nat geo you can hot rod them, add additional trays and media. I don't have to maintenance them any more often then my canister filter if they are appropriate size for your tank. Love my internal filters. When you do the positive video see if you can borrow a Sicce internal filter to demonstrate with as they are more adaptable and easily modified,*including* different outflows. I don't have the fluval one for a reason. ;-) Thanks for the great videos Bentley!

I use them as a secondary filter. Have one with a spray bar attachment which works well in my pond set up and created kind of a waterfall effect with it. Mine has sponges in it though and they are pretty decent sized and it wasn’t expensive at all. Wouldn’t use it as primary filtration but I love it for my purposes

I have those exact two filters running (without the carbon cartridge) in a 90-gallon tank, along with 2 sponge filters, and 20 peacocks' cichlids for the past 6 years. The flow is pointed to the top of the water. I gravel clean every 2-3 weeks and clean out the filters. Not my favorite setup, but it works well, and no issues. I did not want to go with the HOB on this tank only because I wanted to avoid any possible overflow of water on the hardwood floors in the living area. My other tanks all have HOB along with sponge filters in the basement of our home. I gave up on the canister filters.

The main reasons why I like these are the fact that they will never leak and they're not as ugly as a sponge filter. You did make good points, though. I've used the Fluval U3 for 20 years and it's done a decent job.

I used the sicce shark adv 400 in a 29 gallon and it did well. I was however cleaning the sponges and replacing the filter floss every 2 weeks. It does solve space outside the tank issue.

I think they are great, normally I use UGF and they work well, sometimes when I move stuff around in the tank I need a quick way to cleanup, thats when I drop one of these in the tank and walk away while it cleans up, works great, easy to install and use, and I no longer need to add a HOB to quickly polish the water. Fish also love the flow, get an adjustable one.

My two larger internal ones came with a bar to attach that distributes water out. Kinda like the old yard watering things. I like my three, but they are on smaller tanks. My largest with them is a 20. But all three are doing well.

I've used these Fluval U's for quite some time & they're powerful & keep water qualities nice & if you add a Ventura tube at the top they can throw out some good oxygen. My U4 I have in my Fluval shaker 252 backs up my 307 canister & is cleaned monthly & the carbon filter needs changing monthly but the sponge gets changed when getting to dark. It's also down to the cleaning & doing the propeller area with cotton wool buds to remove any crap, cleaning the propeller with a toothbrush, I brought a set of small brush heads & at the bottom cleaning the area out that leads up to the nozzle head's removed any algae that builds a wall in the area as that can slow the flow to the nozzles, in general cleaning mine takes half hour to keep it up to top spec.

Another type of internal filter would be aquariums with a built in filter compartment such as the Fluval Flex systems. I have a three year old fifteen gallon flex and I have found it difficult to maintain a proper water level in the filter compartment. The pump supplied needs a reduced flow. I'm replacing the pump with a version with adjustable flow rate. Happy New Year! Cheers!

Another reason to hate them: having used 3 made by a O-name manufacturer, you tuck them in a corner and hide with stem plants. Well, at maintenance time you have to pull out the drawers and..guess what? You kick up all kinds of soil and plants trying to remove the drawers lined up at the bottom and/or the entire thing. A friggin nightmare! Thank u for another good video.

I think tomorrow Bentley is going to have another video titled, Internal Canister Filters, why they are great lol.

My personal favorite internal filters are the ones from Oase that fit into the corner and also hide a heater inside. Though, I wish they made them in less conspicuous colors. Also, I do find with many brands/types of internal filters, include the ones from Oase, that small fish can get stuck between the aquarium wall and the filter. They thrash about and die. Thus, they are perhaps better suited to tanks with large fish.

The sicce shark pro and the older shark adv where awesome before I went biomaster thermo canisters. Now I only use them on my tubs

Hi Bentley. Thanks for the video. I have been using internal canisters for years now & Yes I agree the internal canisters do suck but depends on what is your objective. They are quite versatile as well. The positives are If you want pure mechanical filtration then they work like a charm clearing the particulate matter very very quickly. You also have a lot of flexibility on what media you want to use in it(depending on what brand you get), you can use pot scrubber pads, fine or coarse sponges, activated carbon, matrix, floss, etc, basically your imagination sets the limit as long as it can fit into the canister housing. Since it sits inside the tank, there is no risk of overflows or flooding your house. You can use it to aerate the tank using the venturi. The venturi can be noisy at times though. The downsides are as you said they require a lot of maintenance and tend to get clogged very quickly and are very poor for biological filtration. Other downsides I have experienced are the motors tend to burn out quite often and you would need to replace the whole thing. Also they are an electrical hazard as at times they tend to develop leaks in the waterproof powerhead casing either through where the electrical wire enters or the joints of the casing, causing electricity to leak into the tank shocking the fish and you if you were to put your hand into the tank. I've been shocked by these quite a few times and had to put an earthing cable inside the tank in case of another leak in future. At times the jet can annoying & tiring to certain fish. Due to its limited biological filtration capacity, I now use mine to pump the water into my sump sitting behind the aquarium so saving on the cost of buying an expensive pump for my sump as these are much cheaper and the sponge in it acts as a prefilter thus reducing my maintenance on the sump. With this there was no need to drill my tank or build an overflow system. I've also used the filter casing of a burnt out internal canister as a prefilter for my external canister filter thus reducing the maintenance on that as well. I love your videos and listening to different perspectives. 👏👏👏👌👍

The only internal filter I ever liked was the Sicce shark pro doesn’t clog fast

Once you go past box,sponge or hang on back it’s kind of like mine’s bigger than yours!

I do like to use an internal filter over a powerhead to push water around and polish the water. Not an internal "cannister" filter per se, just like a basic Nicrew that I stuff with filter floss. Yeah, gotta replace the floss every water change, but it works wonders in a low tech setup!

Hi Bentley, I use the exact Fluval U series. I have a U3 on my 55 gal planted because the U4 costs to much and I use the U2 on my 20 long. I have the venturi tube and it puts a lot of oxygen out. I use the U3 in my 55 gal planted to just move water across the top my Rainbows and giant danios actually swim in the stream sometimes lol. I only use them for polishing the water. I by an offbrand cartridges that don't have the carbon in them just to polish and it is way cheaper than the name brand Fluval ones. I also added more Biomax to get more beneficial bacteria growth. they are silent minus the air push across the top ventri. I also use the Expertmatic Internal Canister in my 98 gal CA/SA tank that thing is a beast of a internal filter and pulls a lot of water through it. I use it to for water polishing and air in the tank. It is a awesome one and cheap to buy and works up to 180 gal tank they say. but i would put two for a 180 gal. lol Appreciate these videos brother.

This means war! I use them with a sponge filter. I clean them more regularly (strictly mechanical) than hob or canisters. They are so easy to clean - which is the entire point (to me). Flow… every filter only does certain areas; that’s why you have air stones (or two filters…). I used a Fluval years ago and hated it. Use the Sicce now, but wish they still imported the Eheim PICKUP (mine still runs after 25 years). Also use my own water bottle versions. To me, they are great mechanical filters. I don’t care about bio as I either match them with a canister in big tanks or a sponge filter in small tanks. But a big plus for me is getting the tank closer to the wall and being able to reach them easily in stacked tank scenarios. I don’t dislike any certain kind of filtration, I find certain ones more useful than others in certain situations. By value and volume, a HOB will always win. For quietness and efficiency, you can’t beat an external canister. For simplicity a sponge will always win. For mechanical, both internal and external canisters dominate. And the list goes on… I think we should stop talking about single filters and start talking about mixing filter types to achieve better results. Duck season!

I've got one in my 20 long Hillstream Loach tank along with a sponge filter. Mine is filled with nothing more than pillow foam. It's okay for what it is but nothing more.

I don't have one of these for all the reasons you pointed out. The only reason I might want one would be to help clear a tank quickly after setup or moving day. Probably only fill it with poly fil to capture a bunch of gunk in the water column for a day or two. Otherwise, uh there are plenty of other options.

Does the Juwel Bioflow M that came siliconed into my tank count as an internal canister filter? I like mine well enough, it does the job and is easy to maintain. I didn't like the Bioflow One though, that came with my quarantine tank, so it might all depend on the model you buy.

I agree 100%. Not only do you have to have an unsightly limited resource inside your tank, you have to disturb your aquatic children and get your hands wet and dirty. I stopped using internals many years ago. Now on some of my more heavily stocked breeding tanks I use the Tidal HOB's. They self-prime, are easy to exchange polyfill, and do a much better job. Once again Bentley, you share your wisdom and knowledge while making enjoyable videos! Bravo!

I plan a rimless 35, with black background. Was going to get the fluval flex as I like the back filtration, so looked at these. I’ve had leak issues, so canisters seemed overkill and you know, once burned. Got a seachem, HOB. But I have to say I don’t see why they make them so tall, better I guess but where is a HOB, in clear and same profile as light, and big, sumpish.:Here again I figured i can color blend w background. I think these could be triangular for corner w heater. Maybe in typical tank heights. I like the uneven flow, I think, a few fast fish on top of a 21” cube. Slower ram water below. I will be in 1 inch per gallon range and I use drip system. But I got to prop it up, like 10 inches, like I said make it fit my tank better.

Nice video...makes me think.. I have only ever had internal filters..but I have only like 20..25 gallon tanks.. Do I like them?..Good question..I don't know now lol..

I keep one in my goldfish tank because it makes cycling a new tank sooooo easy!!! Without needing an air pump! 😉

I’ll be curious to see how you put a positive spin on this type of filter.

HOBs can be unsightly too! I agree with most of what you said though and I use sponge filters on most of my tanks but I run an internal on one tank and it's easily hidden by plants and piece of driftwood (can't do that with HOB). Mine doesn't have baskets, just came with a huge sponge which I cut in half and I put ceramic media in the bottom, I've also run it with carbon in a bag. Mines a no-name thing, cost about 30 bucks, gives ridiculous flow, so much flow in fact I had to direct it at the glass and has worked great for about 3 years now. I do agree the branded ones are stupidly expensive and not worth it at all. I've used an Eheim one and the 30 buck "China special" is no different except the Eheim baskets are restrictive for modding although I could, just less space. I should add I've never replaced sponges or cartridges with branded ones I've only ever bought cheap sheets of sponge to cut to size or generic ceramic media to throw in. Mostly I try not to replace media anyway (just clean it) because of beneficial bacteria.

I have 3 tanks with eheim internal filters. They have a sponge as a cartridge. The sponge is easy to clean, but when they need replacing, they’re very expensive for what is just a piece of sponge. 😕 Edit: I’ll put the advantages in your next, why they’re great video 😂

Although internal filters are awesome for flow ie you get one when you're thinking of getting bamboo shrimp, actually accessing them to clean is poop. ✌️

Hey Bentley, would you happen to know if the co op is open New Year’s Eve? They don’t have a contact number and from what I saw the store might be under construction 🤷🏽

Btw we might have crossed paths, but probably not. When I heard GSAS, I thought I’d discovered a new form of intelligent life. I was a judge 75 - maybe 80, from spokane. They would pay my bus fare and put me up. I dominated the Spokane scene for a while. But decided college meant no more road trips. I still remember DR Rothan from Kordon in Bellevue I think. . If you were there it’s a shame we didn’t connect. If my chemistry job gets me to Seattle, (rare) maybe I can make a meeting. Obviously love the channel and for sure aquascaping has progressed- I guess always was there, but really we tended to think pet shop in the sections I did, like these inside filters. Very much a pet shop thing I think.

I agree with some other commenters. I use internal filters for temporary extra water polishing and not as a permanent filter solution. I am more in agreement with you on this con installment.

You have good points but also a lot of points I don't agree with. HOB filters are extremely ugly. Yes internal filters are ugly, but you can always hide them with plants or handscape. HOB filters you can't even hide them unless you put some pothos plant or simliar emersed plant to cover it up but not everyone wants that. Also unless you get Sechem tidal/marineland pro/marina HOBs, then you are prone to leaks. Internal filters don't leak. Yes, internal filters have a strong jet flow, but you can also buy oval glass fitting that provides the same outflow as a canister oval glass out pipe. You are right on the advanced filtration on the HOB vs the internal filter, that I can't argue. But I can also tell you it's more important to have the substrate as the biological filter than the filter itself which is why gravel filters are awesome biologically but they suck mechanically. On my rimless UNS tanks, I have all internal filters and canister filters on my big shallow and longs. The internal filters do an amazing job and are extremely quiet on my tanks. Also you can't see them as they are covered with the background plants. The only HOBs I would consider are the Sechem tidal/marineland pro/marina slim HOBs because they are quiet and dont' leak. However, they would like like trash on my rimless tanks.

Use bio bale to optimize. Hass 33sqft of area per pound.

Marineland Magnaflow really sucks. I had to clean it every other day in a clear water situation

it good for a backup to cleen watter buttt not ass tanks fillter

I'll disagree with you on this video and agree with you on the next. Lol. The Shark Pro is an incredible filter.

Bentley, do you have an email I can contact you through?? I’m having some issues with my 40 gal and my light settings!

The fluval internal filters of the 1980s an 90s worked far better than there new stupid designed ones,that we have these days,wouldn't waste any money on them these days

They are just to big in the aquarium I find.

no need to make the followup video to this. Just go ahead and move on to the next filter lol

Why would anyone chose that over canisters, HOBs, power heads or sponge filters? Makes no sense. They aren't the most powerful, they aren't the lowest maintenance, they aren't the best looking, they aren't the cheapest, they aren't the easiest, they don't have the most capacity, they don't have much flexibility... yup... they suck! lol

never heard of them as canister. Maybe a crap filter

Sponge filter to the grave.

im confused, this video you say they suck but the following video is you saying they are good LOL Very contradicting 😵‍💫

This cartridge design is horrible,they get full very quickly.this design is not a filter at all,this way is just good to force people to buy new cartridges pretty often.the real inner filter is a power head with a huge sponge on.that is a good example,not this type.